Stumbling on Happiness

The concept for this book is incredibly interesting - that we essentially can't judge what will make us happy, and the only way to do really get those things that will truly make us happy is to judge the happiness others gain by their experiences. Gilbert's insight is equally matched by his sense of dry pan humor that moves this book along and pulls even the least interested ready to the end of the book. If you've ever wondered about the psychology of happiness, this book is excellent.

I have read numerous books on behavior, biases and didn't expect this one to stand out.
It brought a new twist on how valid our foretelling is and was often quite funny.
Even as I was trying to wrap my brain around the concepts, I would be giggling at the style.
Much recommended!

Although interesting, the writing was not cohesive and so, after time spent, there was the sense that no depth of insight had been gained. Previous reviews had given the author much credit. Perhaps a final chapter with the few solid points brought together would have been more satisfying.

Consider two real life stories...one lives in misery, is unfairly accused of crime, and is hanged to death. The other is a wealth creator, builds a huge empire, generates huge economic output, and creates many jobs. Which life would you rather live? If you think you know, think again...and read this book!

It is about the psychology, biology, science, and art of happiness and the author has done a wonderful job developing his framework for understanding human happiness and assembling together the details in a style that is very easy to read, but does not trivialize the subject.

This is an amazing book that I recommend to everyone. It really removes the mystery about what happiness is. It does not tell you how to become happy but it clarifies for you why you feel happy or miserable. In that sense, it makes you feel better about yourself.

I originally purchased 'Stumbling on Happiness' because of numerous people I respect who wrote about how it impacted their thinking and decision making (one might say, I asked how "happy" they were having read it before diving in myself).

In terms of entertainment and insights the book DID deliver. Gilbert is quite witty in his writing, and reading his book feels like sitting down in front of a log fireplace at the local pub, beer in hand, whilst talking with an academic about his research. He does an excellent job at weaving together numerous research findings to paint a picture of the many ways our perceptual system can impact our decision making such that we are later unhappy with the decisions we have made.

That said, the book was not transformative in the way I had hoped. It offered few concrete solutions to our decision–making mishaps, and the one real solution it did offer (to ask people who have already made a given decision how happy they were with it, before making the same decision ourselves), while good advice overall, seemed like an afterthought and lacked the robustness that would be needed to deal with major real–world decisions (what career, who to marry, where to live, etc.); and, the research to support that solution (which essentially argued that people are more similar than they think), felt more ivy tower than real world. In terms of my use of this "solution," in reading this book in the first place, the outcome was just ok: it was a good and fun read, but not the transformative experience that I was hoping for.

I remember reading the first chapter of Stumbling, thinking that I would be more pleased with the book than I was with Brain Rules by John Medina. I wasn't.

Gilbert's writing style is very digestible; he definitely writes in a less technical manner than did Medina. However, the book only seemed to confirm what I already knew: our brains are imperfect. We all think of ourselves as above average.

Perhaps it's not fair to be too critical. Maybe I'm just unlikely to find books like this terribly interesting. I just didn't feel compelled to read on and it took me much longer than anticipated to finish the book.

Stumbling on Happiness tells a simple, useful set of truths about how we make decisions. But it does so in about 3-5 times as many words than is necessary. I felt like I was reading a teenager's book report that was written with an emphasis on getting to a certain length instead of just summarizing the facts of the matter. I started this book with an eager desire to learn more. I finished it feeling relieved that I was done. It simply takes way too long to tell its story.

Dr. Gilbert does an excellent job of explaining, in layman's terms, how the emotion of happiness works in the human mind. This book is more inspirational than instructional: it helps you understand how your emotions work, rather than how to manipulate them. So if you're looking for something to teach you how to be happy, this book isn't for you. But if you're interested in logically dissecting your emotions, particularly in relation to how you think you should feel, this book can be invaluable.

I would like to thank Pete Wilson on KGO radio for interviewing Dr. Gilbert. This interview inspired me to buy the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The author's style is catchy yet informative and the message finds its way through examples, scientific evidence and experments. Many of its remarks will stay with me. Stumbling is it then....

I am an academic psychologist who is interested in social behaviour and emotion. So, of course, a book about how people predict their emotional responses to future events and how this interacts with their social behaviour was always going to appeal to me. But, I don't buy every book that might appeal to me, so how did I know I'd like this one? How did I know this book would make me happy?

Well, to be perfectly honest, the main reason I bought this book was this: Dan Gilbert is a fantastic writer. I knew this from having read many of his scholarly journal articles. In fact, I was so sure that this book would be brilliantly written that I preordered it. And, I was right, it is. However, predicting our likes and the things that will make us happy is not something we're always good at, and that's whole the point of this book.

Just to belabor the brilliance of Dan Gilbert's writing for a second, this quote comes from the Acknowledgements section: "This is the part of the book where the author claims that nobody writes a book by himself and then names all the people who presumably wrote the book for him...Alas, all the people who wrote this book are me, so let me thank those who by their gifts enable me to write the book without them.". That's the kind of witty wordsmithery that you'll find from cover to cover of Stumbling on Happiness.

Very little of the content of this book surprised me, but then again I've spent the best part of the last 13 years studying psychology. What I would expect is that this book will surprise most people, probably because most people make the same mistake economists do; they presume that they, and others, are rational. Stumbling on Happiness successfully highlights many of the limits of human rationality.

In reading this book you will gain a well synthesized and up-to-date look at some of the most interesting research happening in psychology today. And, although every reviewer is at pains to point out this that is not a self-help book, you may just gain some insight into yourself.

For people who enjoyed the insights this book provided about human behaviour, thinking, and emotions I'd recommend the following three books to compliment it: "Intuition" by David Myers, "Strangers to Ourselves" by Tim Wilson, and "The Illusion of Conscious Will" by Daniel Wegner. In addition, lots more examples of Dan Gilbert's fantastic writing (mostly journal articles and book chapters) can be downloaded from his website at Harvard.

Finally, I've recently listened to the Audiobook (read by Gilbert) and it is also excellent.

I liked the easy writing style for the thesis like presentation. Also the documentation and analysis seemed top notch. I would have preferred to have the conclusion first before the anaysis. I may have to reread it to pick up items I may have missed. Nice piece of work.

This is an awesome book written with no little wit and incredible insight. It's like Blink but with humor.

If you want to know why you make bad decisions, why you think like you do and why having kids isn't what it's cracked up to be, you need to check this out.

Imagine having a fun Psych professor who is lecturing you on a bunch of clever studies about how people dont really know what they want. If that sounds like fun, then you will enjoy this book. The author has a clever style of presentation and a clear thesis. But the studies are loosely reported, and only indirectly support his point since they often were designed to show something else. He shusses over that and other details with his clever comments. Will you learn how to be happy from this book? No. Will you learn why you arent happy? No. Will you learn anything about happyness? Yes something, but it will be hard to say what.

This book is written in very clear and understandable way, with lot of humor, in spite of its complicated subject. It is very thorough, supported by many experiments and studies, nevertheless it is easy to follow and comprehend. I esspecially liked some very well supported notions of what do we really know (from what we think we know), or percept or remember - in other words that our very perception in more faulty than we may know.
It takes real talent to explain complicated things in simple and understandable way.
BTW, I envy his students, he must be a great professor!

I ordered Stumbllng on Happiness because I'm going to hear Dan Gilbert speak on October 24 and based on skimming a few reviews, it sounded interesting. I'm hooked. I got to page 9 before I stopped to order two more copies because I know I'll want to share it and keep mine.

My husband is accustomed to my reading quietly, but by page 9, I've already laughed aloud enough to interrupt what he's trying to do. I can't vouch yet for how valuable the rest of the book will be, but the writing is fascinating, humorous, fun. I clearly won't finish what I am supposed to be doing this evening.

I wouldn't normally have bought a book with this title because I don't think happiness is something you stumble on, but as I think about it, I must confess that in spite of myself and whether or not I deserve it or planned it this way, I am already happy and most of my dreams have come true, and a lot of good things have happened that I never dreamed might happen.

This book seems very likely to join such favorites of mine as those by Richard Lederer, whose books have given repeated pleasure to this "verbivore" - The Play of Words, Adventures of a Verbivore, etc. I'll review it again when I've finished it. In the meantime, I must call a couple of people tonight.

One dream does remain unfulfilled - there's a someday book in me about some of the serendipities that have made my life in real estate so interesting. Maybe I should get someone with Daniel Gilbert's flair for language to tell my stories.

I liked the book a lot, despite the misleading title. The book is not at all about happiness, but about how memories, perception and imagination are constructed and how this construction actually affects our understanding. I would say it is a well written book with relevant examples.

I ordered Stumbllng on Happiness because I'm going to hear Dan Gilbert speak on October 24 and based on skimming a few reviews, it sounded interesting. I'm hooked. I got to page 9 before I stopped to order two more copies because I know I'll want to share it and keep mine.

My husband is accustomed to my reading quietly, but by page 9, I've already laughed aloud enough to interrupt what he's trying to do. I can't vouch yet for how valuable the rest of the book will be, but the writing is fascinating, humorous, fun. I clearly won't finish what I am supposed to be doing this evening.

I wouldn't normally have bought a book with this title because I don't think happiness is something you stumble on, but as I think about it, I must confess that in spite of myself and whether or not I deserve it or planned it this way, I am already happy and most of my dreams have come true, and a lot of good things have happened that I never dreamed might happen.

This book seems very likely to join such favorites of mine as those by Richard Lederer, whose books have given repeated pleasure to this "verbivore" - The Play of Words, Adventures of a Verbivore, etc. I'll review it again when I've finished it. In the meantime, I must call a couple of people tonight.

One dream does remain unfulfilled - there's a someday book in me about some of the serendipities that have made my life in real estate so interesting. Maybe I should get someone with Daniel Gilbert's flair for language to tell my stories.

I liked the book a lot, despite the misleading title. The book is not at all about happiness, but about how memories, perception and imagination are constructed and how this construction actually affects our understanding. I would say it is a well written book with relevant examples.

A perfect book explaining what all "Happy" could mean. I thoroughly enjoyed authors style of writing, very humorous, and yet to the point and conveying the message, all with backing psychological experiments and very convincing explanations. Fluid flow from start to the end. Makes you aware of all the finer details of happiness, aware of how one might feel before and after the events, why we look for control and why that makes you happy.

I thought the book had some interesting thoughts. I also thought it was a hard read. Basically I gathered that our happiness depends on our past experiences vs our current situation vs our future imagination of w what could be.

The author appears to be using long sentences to get his ideas through, or when trying to address a certain point, for this reason it is hard to begin the book. Then there is the author trying to be funny in a scientific manner, which also seems rigid to the extent where it makes you feel that he is mocking the intelligence of the reader.
Despite all that, as you go through the book you get accustomed to his style and you will get captivated by the compelling scientific facts, mesmerized by the quality and sheer truth of the information he reveals. Putting the book down becomes a difficult task!
The topic is so interesting! It revolves around everything you could imagine about happiness. He approaches it from the social, scientific, biological, economic and psychological aspects!
This book is a must read and a pleasure to do so!

I have tried to read this book three times....and just too frustrated to read beyond Chapter 3. I keep asking so what? What do his explanations have to do with happiness or whatever? Talk about The Art of Psycho-Babble!
I suggest you look at his great PBS documentary, "This Emotional Life".

Great book, a little deep, but provides great insight into what really causes happiness at a more scientific level. If you want a good read and are willing to take some time and think about what you read, I would recommend it.

Very witty author educates the readers in becoming a lot less sloppy in our thinking, especially with regard to our expectations of things to come. I'm enjoying the book, at some points more than others, all the time wondering what would happen to advertising and marketing if we would all be much more aware of these awe inspiring facts about ourselves.

This book was more of a psychology study presentation than a "how to find happiness" book. I think I was expecting the latter more than the former. The material is presented well and the author does keep some rather dry material entertaining with personal anecdotes. I recently read Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow and there are numerous similarities between these books. The studies discussed, the decision processes we use in daily life and other material. I didn't really expect the "answer" to happiness but was hoping. Really, you just have to figure it out for yourself.

This book is essential for those people who may be having a difficult time understanding why the traditional paths, laid out by family, friends and society; are not leading them to the happiness. This book is also a helpful guide to how our own beliefs may be getting in our way to happiness. The book offers no solutions on how to achieve happiness. This is not a self help book. But instead shines a light on areas of life we may not have looked at with enough scrutiny and doubt, and gives us an opportunity to think new ways about old "truths". This book is also essential reading along with "sex at dawn" for those considering non monogamy, polyamory, swinging or any other alternative relating. For those that are looking for a bit more stability in their logic and desires to pursue their true happiness.

Interested in how our senses and mind work? How about the shortcomings of our imagination and why the future is almost always very different than expected? And, for audiobook listeners, not just a clear presentation, but some truly humorous asides and observations.

This book has it and has had me thinking ever sinced I finished it.

I heard Dr.Gilbert recently at a conference in Boston...went out bought this book and then ordered more for holiday gifts for some of my always "waiting" for happiness friends. Great lessons here on the little things that really make us happy.

This book is a deligytful read, reporting on research regarding how we assess what will make us in the future based on past experience and how often our assessments are incorrect. The author is a renounced Harvard clinical psychologist who writes with a sense of humor and humility. This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in the human condition and how the mind works.